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Pro and cons of this Vinyl cutter set-up
Hope Gareth doesn’t mind me stealing his pic, but it never occurred to me to set my cutter up like this. Any comments appreciated as to its merits, demerits? Unmerits? mismerits? ……disadvantages 😀
https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … sc&start=0
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12 Replies
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how do you weed the first bit whilst the second bit is cutting (!)
ah 2 benches
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Pros – the vinyl doesn’t reach the floor and pick up dust or possibly snag when winding to and fro rapidly.
Cons. – gravity helps assist to keep the vinyl straight when in front of the cutter. If the vinyl feeds onto a horizontal surface (i.e the workbench) might it not curl up and wrinkle and (possibly snag) when rewinding rapidly?
I’ve never tried a system like this – but the graphtec sytsetm of employing a "catch net" seems like a good solution to me.
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I realise it would only work with two benches Chris……but I’m wondering if what Phill has pointed out is a major problem.
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My first set-up did exactly the same, with the vinyl coming off the cutter and straight across the weeding bench. It was forced on me to a certain extent due to a lack of space, but worked well for some years.
I never had a problem with lack of gravity, but then my cutter only took 500mm wide vinyl. It was sprocket fed as well, so slippage problems couldn’t occur.
Even today one of our cutters has a gap only just wide enough for the operator to squeeze through. Provided we are careful to leave a bit of slack it is perfectly possible to start weeding whilst the cutter is still doing it’s business.
Added on edit: You don’t need two benches. Off the roll, through the cutter and onto the bench. Simples. 😀
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i have two of thee machines… Graphtec 54inch wide cutters. both with bags etc…
till a couple of years ago we never had any drop bags.
before that we had benches and the like.i can honestly say, they are well worth having. they help tracking. they help prevent dust build-up etc and its not till you have them you realise just how much dust builds up due to static charge.
they prevent heavy kinks in vinyl when the vinyl hits the ground at speed, which in turn, down the line, makes fitting easier. (if not kinked)many reasons actually… but as im on my 5th beer tonight… ill leave it at that.
😉 :lol1:
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quote John Childs:Added on edit: You don’t need two benches. Off the roll, through the cutter and onto the bench. Simples. 😀
Could the honourable gentleman elucidate further? Doesn’t compute! 😀
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This is what I meant Harry. No second bench anywhere.
Added on edit: Oh, bugger. Can’t read the words. Oh well……
The top one is what I think we are discussing.
Middle is the way I did it when I started, with cutter sitting on the end of the bench.
Bottom is the way we have one of our cutters set up today. Not too often used like that, but can be very useful sometimes.
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our laminator is setup with a table at the feed end…
our cutter is the bags solution, it works, there is some kinking but not much..
only issue we have with the bags is they are covered in dust now, so need washing! -
quote Dave Rowland:only issue we have with the bags is they are covered in dust now, so need washing!
our bags have been in place about 18 months or so… they get a "little" dusty from time to time, but they are "button clip-on" – clip-off… you just take them off and shake, then put back on.
ill probably give them a proper wash in about 6 months if they really need it.the fact here is, these bags are catching the vinyl and preventing the dirt/dust getting onto your media. the fact they get dirty just shows the dust will jump onto the vinyl as a result of it hitting the floor but mainly due to static build-up on the coiled vinyl.
john we used to have same sorta setup some time ago. although it does work. when the machine is cutting large jobs, jumping back and forward the bench often caused problems. i.e. instead of the machine lifting 3ft drop of vinyl at one time. it was trying to pull back vinyl that’s slid the length of the table. or if it stacks itself in from of the mouth of the machine and tried whizzing back to its origin point, it somtimes jammed the machine as the motor is trying to pull the stacked pile of vinyl.
as you said, i cant read the text on your illustration, so excuse me if theres something mentioned there about preventing this.
to be honest, when i look back at it when we had it, i didnt/dont see the point anymore. the guy weeding or working is limited in what he can do because the vinyl is still attached to the machine. worse still if the job is midway running.
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Ive done it this way for a few years works fine for me in what space i have, i don’t ever really cut more than two metres and when i do a load i just cut it all then weed later ive always got something to do so it doesn’t cause a problem, each to their own i suppose, it might be a different story next week when i get the printer cutter :lol1:
Main reason in the beginning was to stop it going onto the floor, its never really snagged on me when its feeding back in fast just have to keep and eye on it and have plenty of slack.
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Thanks for the input and for taking the time folks.
Can I ask a quickie….can you leave what you have cut in the bag until it is ready to be weeded, will it interfere with new cutting? -
my understanding from cutter suppliers and from experience is that the cutter tracks better and longer if it has the same drop/pull/resistance from either end. the bag helps keeps this consistent as well as it preventing snagging. the bags also help the vinyl roll-up into itself in the bottom or the bag.
if you leave the vinyl in the bag harry you would end up with folds forming in the vinyl due to the increasing weight sitting on top of the job prior.as i said, we did NOT use bags for over 17 years on various types of cutter, only in the last couple of years when we upgraded our Graphtec & Roland cutters to new 2 new Graphtec’s with catch bags did we see benefits. instantly you do notice less dust and kinks in the vinyl as a result of the vinyl hitting the ground. not saying this was ever an issue for us, just that when you switch to bags, you do see the benifits.
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